Deregulation Is Hard Because Regulators Always Want More Power

See Can Deregulation Work?: It was hard under Ronald Reagan. It will be impossible under Barack Obama by Paul H. Rubin, professor of economics at Emory University. From the WSJ, page A13, 1-21-11. He says some officials in the 1980s were serious about reducing regulations but

"The permanent staffs of the agencies were always interested in more regulation, either because of self-selection or because promotions and power increase in a larger agency. It also helped that we deregulators (generally economists) were not usually interested in permanent government positions, because reducing the power of the agency is a sure way to make enemies.

Although my mandate was to cut back, I spent more time fighting new proposals than getting rid of old ones."

"The current regulatory agencies are not going to hire or promote people like me."

"The current executive order seems to impose cost-benefit analysis, but it has enough loopholes ("equity, human dignity, fairness") so that agencies will be able to do whatever they want."